Hontiveros urge foreign investigation into EJKs

Photo: Senator Risa Hontiveros/Facebook.com

National Officials had expressed concern over the facts that Vice President Leni Robredo released in a video message for a UN Conference last week, citing that she had provided false information. This places  the Philippines in a position of  further scrutiny and criticism over Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.

In a statement made Monday, Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros said that the government should invite representatives from the United Nations and the European Union to ensure that the international community is not “misinformed”.

“The assertion that the UN and EU parliament were grossly misinformed of the situation in the country is wrong. The members of both the UN and EU have various missions to the country, manned by hundreds of staff. They know what is happening around here,” she said.

“But if the government will continue to dismiss the international organizations’ pronouncements for their supposed lack of awareness of the realities on the ground, then I urge the Duterte government to invite representatives of the UN and EU to verify the allegations of EJKs in the country,” she added.

Hontiveros said that the Duterte Administration should understand that the Philippines is part of a global community joined not only by trade and economic ties, but also by the shared respect and interest in human dignity and social welfare.

On the other hand, Senator Panfilo Lacson asked the Vice President to double-check her figures on extrajudicial killings in the camera. In her video, she said that over 7,000 people were killed ever since Duterte was elected as President.

Lacson said that both sides have their share of losses. He tweeted that the government had suffered 38 casualties in 2,000 police operations and that she should correct her facts.

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano also said earlier that international human rights groups are looking at a summarized figure where the 7,000 is a summary of legitimate police operations, and homicide and murder cases that are not supposed to be attributed with the drug war.
In fact, according to Cayetano, there are some 70,000 extrajudicial and unresolved killings recorded during Former President Benigno Aquino III’s term which is something that international groups had not raised prior to Duterte’s war on drugs.